Douglas Baylis was born in 1915 in East Orange, New Jersey. In 1941, he graduated with a Landscape Architecture degree from
the University of California, Berkeley. Early influences in Berkeley included teacher Leland ("Punk") Vaughn and mentor Thomas
Church. Following graduation, Baylis worked in the Church office for about four years and then started his own firm. He is
often credited (with Church, Eckbo, and Royston) as one of the founders of the "California School" of modernism in Landscape
Architecture.

Maggie (Margaret) Hilbiber was born in 1912 in Tacoma, Washington. At age 16, she was one of three women in the University
of Pennsylvania's entering architecture class. After two years she was forced to return to Washington to look for work because
of the Depression. When she moved to San Francisco in the mid-1940s, Hilbiber and a partner opened a graphics studio.

When Doug Baylis responded to Maggie Hilbiber's advertisement of "hands for hire," a decades-long professional and personal
partnership began. Doug and Maggie Baylis married in 1948. Together they embraced conservation of the Northern California
landscape and the ideals of outdoor living. Maggie's drafting facility complemented Doug's disdain for drafting, and many
of the firm's design and publishing projects showcased their teamwork. Their earliest work included many modernist residential
garden designs. Many residential clients and friends included collaborators (architects, photographers, and others) from larger
public and commercial projects. These friends fondly recall gatherings at the Baylis home-office on Telegraph Hill in San
Francisco and their thoughtfully-situated Stinson Beach house.

Some of the most significant Baylis collaborations include work with the architect Gordon Drake. Doug Baylis worked with Drake
on a house/garden in Carmel and on the Unit House -- a house based on a 3' module with five distinct zones for California
indoor/outdoor living. After Drake's sudden death, Doug and Maggie Baylis both contributed to the book
California Houses of Gordon Drake.

In addition to specific site designs, the Baylis team produced many drawings of landscape structures and garden furniture.
Many of these details and sketches may be found in built projects, magazine articles, or as kits sold in magazines (such as
their plywood play equipment designs). Maggie and Doug Baylis are credited with pioneering a new "how-to" style of garden
article writing that was eventually adopted by many popular magazines across the U.S. Their prolific technical instructions,
handy tips, and clever ideas for the modern garden appeared - often anonymously - in
House Beautiful, Better Homes & Gardens, Sunset, McCall's, and
Family Circle.

After her husband's death in 1971, Maggie Baylis continued to illustrate "how-to" articles for magazines and some additional
publications including
The Purple Thumb and
Plant Parenthood. She also continued to be active in conservation of the Northern California landscape through many organizations from her
new home in Sonoma, CA until her death in 1997.

The Douglas and Maggie Baylis Collection spans the years 1938-1998 (bulk 1943-1939). The collection contains records relating
to the Baylis firm's landscape design projects, publishing endeavors, and some personal items. The contents include personal
papers, office files, project files, drawings, photographs, and writings. The records describe the Baylis commitment to the
California landscape and its unique opportunities for indoor/outdoor living. The collection is useful for tracing the relationships
between significant Bay Area designers of the 1950s and 1960s since many of the Baylis collaborators were also clients and
friends. It is also a useful reference for research into modernism in landscape design, particularly the "California School"
and Bay Area regional style. The collection is divided into five series: Personal Papers, Professional Papers, Office Records,
Project Records, and a unique series containing Construction Details and Landscape Structures.

The Personal Papers contain Maggie Baylis's correspondence and memories of her husband, Doug Baylis's obituary and memorial
material, Doug Baylis's student work and a collection of poetry, and Baylis personal photographs.

The Office Records contain some administrative records, office correspondence, and financial records. This series also includes
photographs of completed landscape design projects, reference photographs related to landscape design and construction details,
and photographs of built landscape structures (designed by Doug and Maggie Baylis). The Office Records contain clippings --
some of which are reference and many which were written or illustrated by (but not necessarily directly attributed to) the
Baylis team.

The Project Records contain a list of Doug Baylis's early projects, project files, drawings and photographs. In-progress and
site photograph locations are listed in manuscript column of Project Index, while photographs of finished projects are filed
in the Office Records series. The projects include residential, commercial, recreational, religious, transportation, humanitarian,
planning, governmental, educational, cultural, and funerary. Residential projects include Eichler's Highlands No. 3, Ping
Yuen Housing Project in San Francisco, and many smaller-scale residential gardens. Other projects include Pacific Area Headquarters
of the American National Red Cross, landscape plans for Bay Area Rapid Transit, Candlestick Park, IBM Headquarters, and San
Francisco's controversial Portsmouth Square.

The final series, Construction Details and Landscape Structures, contains sketches, measured drawings, and notes for countless
landscape details. These are divided into subseries based on type, including vegetation structures, landscape structures,
ground plane treatments, garden furniture, and garden buildings.

The project list below, derived from the Project Index, is arranged alphabetically by Project/Client Name and contains information,
where available, about the location, date, project type, collaborators, photographers, and formats for each project in the
collection.